Dancing makes my heart happy :)

Well, it does.

I love dancing movies. I love watching dancing. And back in the day, I loved to dance too (I still would love to, as long as it doesn’t involve pulling any muscles). I just love it. It makes me happy.

Even though I love dancing, I have NO rhythm. Whatsoever. My husband has LOTS of rhythm, but hates to dance. How does that work out.

Anyway, one of my favorite scenes in a movie is from Hitch. I have even tried to replicate the steps. In the safety of my own home of course. With the blinds closed. I just think it is SO fun

My husband loves me. And because of that, he danced to a “fast” dance with me at our wedding. Which I LOVED, and he hated. He only did it for me, which makes me love it that much more. I really wanted our wedding to be unique, and to have dancing. We def. had dancing, and it was so much fun. But I have to say, this couple has shown us how it is done. I think this is so great and burst into laughter every time I see it! Enjoy

(by the way, be prepared to laugh…loudly!)

Oh baby!

Tim and I baby sat a 3 week old baby last night. I gotta tell you, I am already (since the day we got married) in “I want to have a baby” mode. Like something fierce. But, I know, if it is an option, it would be wiser to wait.

I am so glad my hubby is here to make rational decisions for us.

While we were in Ethiopia we visited an orphanage. Of course this got me talking about kids, once again. Tim usually will not talk to me about it. I tell him he has no imagination, he just says that this is not something we are going through now so it is hard for him to get excited about it. Whatever. Anyway, I started having the baby conversation, and he actually joined in! But what is funny, he said we could start our family next year (holy cow!!). But…. I said (I couldn’t believe the words coming out of my mouth) that we should probably wait at least three more years.

I am about to start back to school for my M.Ed. and he still has at least 2 years in his undergrad. After he graduates, he will then go back for his Master’s in Communicative Disorders. So… I think that it will probably be a better idea if we wait. Ugh. I don’t like that answer, but if I want to be responsible at all, I guess that is the best choice.

I know what many of you will say. “If you wait til you are ready, you will never have a baby”. I know that, but I would like to be a little more ready than we are right now.

So, while I am REALLY wanting a baby, we are still waiting for another 3 years. joy.

Adopt. Make a difference.

Where are we when all of this is going on?!

Go HERE

Let’s do something about it.

Haiti Rescue Center

Please be praying for the Rescue Center in Haiti today.

Go here to find out what they are dealing with right now.

Out of the mouths of babes #1

On Sunday mornings I get the privilege to teach 3 & 4 years olds. I gotta tell you, I love this age! They are talking well now, are so curious and have not quite learned yet just what is appropriate and perhaps what is inappropriate. I have decided to start a series called: Out of the mouths of babes. I will list quotes each week from what my crazy kiddos say. To start it off…here you go:

1) One of the kids told their mom I went to Africa to see a whale (we went to Africa to see the clean water well we had raised money for).

2) little girl: This morning, I couldn’t poop.

me: I hate when that happens.

little girl: So mommy gave me a book. pause And that helped

3) little girl: “You are black today” (I was wearing a black shirt).

That’s all for now. I am sure I will have plenty more for you each week

Ethiopia: ESL training

What is ESL you might ask…

English Standard Language. That was the main thing we did while there. A lot of the people there want to learn or practice their English. We were able to work with a local church to teach people English.

Our one large team ended up splitting into two different teams. The other team had 500 people register for their classes!! We actually only had about 75 register in our group. I got to work with the more advanced group. Which kind of ranged from knowing English really well, to only knowing a little. I had a lot of fun with that group. We taught them things (while I was there, a lot more was taught after I left) about family, food and greetings. The last day I was there we practiced English just through conversation.

Tim was sick pretty much the whole time we were there. We found out after the trip that if you have a cold or sinus infection before you travel like we did, apparently you have good chances of coming down with another sinus infection. Who knew?! We didn’t. Tim had a sinus infection two weeks before we left. By the third day of being there, he came down with another. He has at least 2 to 3 of them a year, and they lay him out. He lost his voice, coughed  A LOT, had no energy and slept all of the time. He stayed at the hotel for the majority of the time. Well, he finally got better the last day we were at the church teaching English.

He got to come for one day to the classes. He helped me out. That was actually the first time he and I got to serve like that together. I loved it! He was so much better than I thought he would be. I mean, I knew he would do a good job, but he did so great! The day he helped was the day we just had conversation with the students. In the middle of the conversation, one of the guys looked at me and asked, “What is it that makes you happy all through your day?”. I said, “well, let me tell you. Jesus Christ.” We then, together, shared the Gospel with this group of college students. It was so neat. I loved every minute of it

One thing I learned about ESL training is it really matters what part of the world/country the teachers are from. I would say something, and pronounce it different from how they learned it, and they would totally not understand what I was saying. We really had to work on that one with me being a southern girl.

Ethiopia: Food

I am falling behind on telling you about my trip to Ethiopia. Sorry!

Next, I’ll tell you about the food. To be honest, there were some things we just could not eat. Any fruits or vegetables that would have to be washed we could not eat (because we could not drink their water, and the food would have been washed with their water). We ate in a lot of restaurants. There were some that were really good, and some…not so great. The restaurant in our hotel was actually my favorite, when it had electricity.

Because they are in a drought (spelling?) they can only afford to give half the city electricity for half the day, and the other half of the city electricity for the other half of the day. The half of the city we were in rarely had electricity at night. A lot of places had generators, but our hotel was pretty large so the generator could not keep everything up and running. So, every night for dinner, the first question always was, “grill?”. If there was no grill, our choices diminished substantially. We were left to (and grateful for!) soup, salad (which we couldn’t eat), and spaghetti. They actually have some pretty good spaghetti.

Just to be safe a lot of times (b/c apparently I can be a picky eater at times) I would just order a toasted cheese sandwich. Or as we call it in the states, a grilled cheese sandwich. Of course, I could only have this when there was electricity, but it was so good One funny moment that happened was the fourth or fifth time I had ordered the toasted cheese sandwich, I randomly ended up with a cheese burger. I just thought it was funny, and illustrated very well how inconsistent things are there. You just kind of have to go with the flow.

Ask just about any  (I say just about just in case there is that one Ethiopian with whom this does not apply) Ethiopian what their favorite food is, and they will instantly tell you injera. Injera is a type of bread that comes with pretty much all of their meals. It is kind of like a spongy, sour, flat bread. They will use injera instead of forks. They will just pick up their food with a piece of injera and eat it all. Some times we would see pieces delivered to tables that was bigger than a large pizza. Personally, I did not enjoy, nor did anyone else on my team I don’t think. But Ethiopians sure do love it!

There was also something called a “coffee ceremony”. This usually happens when guests are over. The guests will be served 3 cups of coffee and popcorn. I was kind of nervous about this because I am NOT a coffee drinker, but knew I couldn’t really say no. Well, they were gracious and only served one cup of coffee, which was the size of what we would consider to be a shot at Starbucks. At one of the ceremonies the caffeine actually had kind of a bad effect on me. I hardly ever drink/eat things with caffeine…besides chocolate. So, when I had two cups of strong coffee with LOTS of sugar in them, I got a little wild. I sang someone’s name over and over. I actually recruited two guys to sing with me. (Pretty sure there is a video out there of that one). I was all over the place. Thankfully, my new friends just thought I was funny, and not crazy…hopefully.

Eating Healthy

I have decided I need to stop avoiding my blog. As I believe I have mentioned before, I love to read other blogs but don’t always love to blog. So, if there is anyone still reading (haven’t I said that before…) thank you!!

I have decided…since my jeans are getting a little too snug… that I need to start eating healthy. I told my half asleep husband this morning that I am putting us on a diet!

It turns out, my wonderful younger brother is actually a health nut. So I just asked him to whip up a diet plan for me. I got it today. It doesn’t look too bad. I am actually excited about hopefully getting healthy.

He told me to go over to Women’s Health Magazine to learn some cooking tips and recipes. There are also a lot of exercises (not that I will do many of them on there too that are great.

So, hopefully I will report back to ya and let you know how things are going.

Oh, and btw, I had written a post a long time ago about not drinking soft drinks anymore but drink more water. Well, I don’t totally not (sorry for the double negative!) drink soft drinks anymore, but i am down to about 4 or 5 a week. I think that is pretty stinkin good for me at least! Usually it is either a Diet Coke or a Sprite. Mostly, I drink water.

Here is an example of my diet plan Josh sent over to me:

Sample Daily Eating Plan 1
Breakfast:
Oatmeal with a Heaping Tablespoon of Peanut Butter and a banana ( all in a bowl together)
Morning Snack:
Whatever Fruit or Vegetable you like and a cup of low fat yogurt
Lunch:
Salad with as much vegetables that you want in it with some type of lean meat (chicken, tuna, most any fish) and a small serving of shredded cheese
I throw lettuce, tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, avocado sometimes, and spicy peppers sometimes all in mine.  I don’t use dressing but you can use as much oil and balsamic vinegar you want, or any type of light dressing but watch the amount you use.
Afternoon Snack:
As many celery sticks as you want with 2 tbsp of peanut butter on them.
Dinner:
Any lean meat with some steamed vegetables
6 oz Chicken Breast
Steamed Broccoli
Sample Daily Eating Plan 2
Breakfast:
1 Egg Fried on 2 pieces of whole wheat toast and any tomatoes or lettuce or onions or peppers you want and a piece of cheese
Small glass of juice
Morning Snack:
Handful of unsalted almonds and Large Apple or Orange
Lunch:
Sandwich on whole wheat toast with turkey, roast beef, or ham and as many vegetables as you want on it and any mustard or light dressing.
Afternoon Snack:
Small serving of cottage cheese and whatever fruit and veggie you want
Dinner:
Whole wheat pasta with chicken and a red sauce or garlic and olive oil sauce
The garlic and olive oil sauce can be made by just putting some olive oil and minced garlic in a pan together and throwing the noodles and chicken in there with them after you have cooked the noodles and chicken and just letting it finish in there for a few minutes.